With the volume of "Method" at hand, the great work of Edgar Moren is completed, which has been translated and republished in many countries. This work highlighted the complexity of a fundamental problem to be addressed and clarified. It then spread widely and sparked a movement for the "reform of thought". In this sixth volume, which deals with a more specific subject and is perhaps more accessible than the previous ones, the author starts from the current, purely Western, crisis of ethics and returns to it after an anthropological, historical, and philosophical examination.

Indeed, duty cannot arise from knowledge alone, but it needs knowledge. Moral consciousness cannot arise from awareness alone, but it needs it, that is, it needs understanding and reflection. Indeed, good intentions can lead to bad actions and moral will can have immoral consequences. Hence the correctness of Pascal's teaching: "Let us strive to think correctly". Often, it is neither simple nor obvious to fulfill our duty. The endeavor is rather risky and its outcome unpredictable: and that is why ethics is complex.

Placing himself beyond moralizing and beyond nihilism, the author does not succumb to the classical temptation to establish ethics: he seeks to locate and revitalize its sources within life, society, and the individual, since humans are simultaneously individual/society/species. He deals with the permanent but constantly sharpening problems of the relationship between ethics and politics, as well as between science and ethics.